DTC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today our dossier was shipped to China. That is big news to an adoptive family. All the documents we have labored over for 5 months are complete. The dossier has to be in China to get a referral of a child that is newly released for adoption. Now we wait for a referral. Our paperwork is ready to find a child's paperwork. We ordered Chinese food delivery to celebrate. A huge weight has been lifted off just sending this monster of paperwork to China. We are so ready to see Austin's face for the first time.

Immigration Said YES

We found out today that our paperwork has finally been approved. It feels so good to finally have it after so long waiting. Now we have to authenticate our approval and send it to China. We hope to still be DTC this week but it may be next week now. At least we are this close we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Last Mother's Day without my son. Prayers are being answered please keep them coming. The rest of the process should not take as long. We sure hope what we hear is true that the inital immigration wait takes the longest. Once we are matched with our son we have to go back to immigration to add his name to the approval but should take 2-3 weeks instead of the 3 months we just waited.

We have an officer finally

After waiting over 2 months we have an officer at immigration. I called him today to ask if he has processed our file. His answer was it is on my desk I don't know when I will get to it. I have a lot of files on my desk. I said I will call back Monday and get an update we are ready to move along. He said don't bother I won't get to it by Monday. I always draw the short straw or pick the slow line at the grocery. I pulled the short straw again, most officers pick up a file and approve it the same day. This guy is saying over 2 days and no end in sight. I cannot belived my luck. One lady I met recently had the same officer and her file sat on his desk for 2 weeks. Please help us pray we don't sit another 2 weeks on his desk. It is our time to be processed and we don't want to sit on a desk any longer. Thanks everyone.

Documents Are Back

We used a courier to hand carry our documents to the US Dept of State and the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. We received all of the documents we sent to the courier back in our hands in yesterday. Our dossier is all ready to send to China except the immigration letter. We hope to hear from them this week. As soon as we receive the approval letter from immigration we will need to make a copy and send it to the courier. The courier will have to take the single letter through the same process as the others have already been through. As soon as the letter has been approved by the Embassy our courier will overnight it to our agency. Our agency will then look over our COMPLETE dossier and if they find everything is in order they will send to CHINA. They only send mail to China on Fridays so we hope immigration gets us an approval letter and the courier gets the letter back to our agency in time to be DTC on May 13. DTC means dossier to China. That is what we have spent over 4 months getting ready to do. Once we are DTC China will give us a LID. LID is the date China officially logs in our dossier and makes us eligible to adopt a child newly released for adoption. It takes 1-4 weeks to get a LID after DTC so we hope for 1 week. There should be a new list of children out sometime after May 18 so we hope to have LID in time for the May list.  We are praying every day to be LID in time. We are very ready to see Austin's face for the first time. Please help us pray for this all improtant LID before May 23. My guess is the next list will be May 23. Thanks everyone we are so close to the good part. So far it has all been what is called the paperchase. The paperchase is not fun and really makes you look deep inside to be sure the adoption is what is meant to be.

Fingerprinting is Done

We walked in today to the USCIS office and asked if we could be fingerprinted today. The waiting room was fairly empty. The security office that was processing people as they came in the door said it would not be a problem. The Nashville staff was so nice. It was a welcome experience as we feared the worst with how we would be treated. You are not allowed to bring in a cell phone, camera, food, drink, or anything else. After they checked us to be sure we did not bring in prohibited items they checked our hands to be sure we could be fingerprinted today. The good news was we were fingerprinted and out of there in less than 30 minutes. Since we had time left after fingerprinting, we went to the State offfice to get our documents authenticated. Now we have everything ready to go to the Chinese Embassy to get the final approval. We still have to wait for an official approval letter from immigration to send everything to China. That letter could take a couple of weeks unless the government does shut down because a budget was not passed then who knows when we would get the approval letter. Please pray that the budget is passed and immigration continues to process paperwork. We are so close to having our paperwork in China at which time we will be matched with our son.

Fingerprinting

We finally got a letter telling us when we can go get fingerprinted. The bad news is it is not until April 27. We plan to walk in early and try to get fingerprinted. Several fellow families have said Nashville will allow walk ins and speed the process along. We sure pray that is true. We are ready to get to the end of the immigration process. We are ready to see the face of our sweet boy.

News About China

Today we received an email stating the famous hotel White Swan that specializes in American familes in the process of adoption will be closed for one year. It will be during the time we should be in China. There is a lot of tradition with the hotel including a red couch in the lobby where families have photos taken of their child in traditional Chinese dress. There is also waterfalls and plants to have photos taken. Mattel sponsors a huge playroom in the hotel for the adopted children. Mattel gives the familes at White Swan a special commerative Barbie for "Going Home." The Barbie is exclusive to the White Swan. While we are adopting a boy, it would still be cool to bring a Barbie home to his big sisters. The hotel is old and will be renovated. It will be even nicer for families that plan to travel late 2012 or after. It is just sad for those of us that will be there during the closure. Losing the traditions of the familes that have gone before us. Our agency is already working on plan B for adoptive families. Rumors are the travel agency that works for our agency has bought the famous red couch to preserve that memory. We hope so and hope it will be available at the hotel that will be the temporary White Swan. I was already planning photos on the red couch.